Mozilla drops support
for NPAPI plugins in Firefox 52
Since Firefox version 52, NPAPI plug-ins in Firefox have been discontinued, except Adobe Flash. Among the unsupported and numerous plug-ins that provide work with a digital signature.
After updating the browser, you may encounter the fact that the site page prompts you to install the plug-in, although the plug-in is already installed. Examples of such errors are given below:
- This plug-in is not supported;
- Error: plug-in is not installed;
- NPAPI plugin is required by this app;
- The applet couldn’t start;
- The browser does not support NPAPI plug-ins;
- This site uses a plug-in that is unsupported;
- Couldn’t load plug-in.
The reason is that the website owner uses a plug-in that is not compatible with the new version of Firefox 52, which was released on March 7, 2017.
As a work-around solution, you can:
- Go to the browser settings by typing in the address bar about:config;
- Create a new boolean-parameter named plugin.load_flash_only and set it to false;
- Restart Firefox.
Work-around will cease to operate from the moment of release of the new version of Firefox. To save the ability to use Firefox to work with the website, you can make a request to the technical support of the website operator.
There is a solution — Blitz Smart Card Plugin supports new Firefox
An excellent solution to the problem may be to refine the website to use the plug-in Blitz Smart Card Plugin. This plugin is free of charge for end users and does not use NPAPI to work with the new version of Firefox.
Plugin Blitz Smart Card Plugin allows the website to work with digital signature in all popular operating systems (Windows, Linux, macOS), browsers (Internet Explorer, Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Yandex.Browser) and digital signature devices of various vendors. Embedding the plugin on the website takes an hour.
